[Zipperfish]

commanderkai commanderkai:

So no in a park, but yes in a street? Anyway, my point is, street protesting have still been occurring even after the WTO riots, even if it means the police have a harder time preventing damage and controlling protests.

Don't get me wrong, protest all you like. But I'd much rather see these protesters actively reject and purge these Black Bloc protesters. But they won't or they can't (I'd argue the former). Kinda reminds me of how some people want political parties to purge their radicals as well.

I don't know how purgeable they are. Apparently they change into their black gear on the fly and take it from there. If you were a protestor, I think you'd be a fool to engage in any kind of violence with 5,000 cops standing around, even if it were to stop someone vandalizing something. The cops may not differentiate between protestor types and you'd end up taking a beating.

I'm sure there are some protestor elements in Toronto that condone, implicitly or explicitly, the violence. In Vancouver during the Olympics, vandal tactics were universally condemned by local media--heck even by the BC Civil Liberties Association.

My only experience protesting was in the run up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (big surprise, right?). At the time, I wanted to make my voice heard that I did not want my country involved. Although the protest I attended was peaceful--no "black bloc" tactics at all or anything similar--I was tunred off by the multiplicity of messages. It wasn't folks aginst invading Iraq, it was feminists against Iraq, or First Nations against Iraq or poverty activists against Iraq. Differnet factions in an alliance of convenience.

[BartSimpson]

Overall, there are fewer infringements of civil rights these days and that's world wide.

Why? Because, for one, even in Iran the police are on video anymore and when they misbehave the video puts the truth to their lies and makes martyrs out of people who'd otherwise die anonymously - like this www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXN_yCSbUYk

And cops now hold other cops to a higher standard and we don't see people getting beat up or raped in cop cars like was normal until the mid-1970's.

Things are getting better, but we do need to make sure that we don't let things backslide.

[Zipperfish]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Overall, there are fewer infringements of civil rights these days and that's world wide.

Why? Because, for one, even in Iran the police are on video anymore and when they misbehave the video puts the truth to their lies and makes martyrs out of people who'd otherwise die anonymously - like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXN_yCSbUYk

And cops now hold other cops to a higher standard and we don't see people getting beat up or raped in cop cars like was normal until the mid-1970's.

Things are getting better, but we do need to make sure that we don't let things backslide.

Wise words.

[andyt]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Overall, there are fewer infringements of civil rights these days and that's world wide.

Why? Because, for one, even in Iran the police are on video anymore and when they misbehave the video puts the truth to their lies and makes martyrs out of people who'd otherwise die anonymously - like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXN_yCSbUYk

And cops now hold other cops to a higher standard and we don't see people getting beat up or raped in cop cars like was normal until the mid-1970's.

Things are getting better, but we do need to make sure that we don't let things backslide.

Don't know if I agree with the first part of your statement, but I'll gladly second the second.